New York Shaving Company’s Old St. Patrick is a clean fresh scent; I’m not quite sure why they called it Old Saint Patrick’s, I had assumed before trying it that this might be their attempt to emulate Creed’s Green Irish Tweed, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. It’s a rather complex scent, one which I’d say overall is rather pleasant, if rather hard to describe. Here’s how they describe it:

A fresh gentlemen’s fragrance that opens with an enveloping fusion of nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, and bergamot notes, and emerges into a perfect blend of coriander and cypress with subtle lavender and geranium undertones. It finishes with a base of patchouli, musk, and cedar softened with vanilla and benzoin.

Maybe it was Irish Spring soap they were going for there, I’ll admit I can’t quite say as it’s been forever since I’ve used that soap.

The strength is middling; it wasn’t all that strong, but it didn’t fade significantly during the shave, staying nice and steady at that lightly scented stage. Which I know some of you definitely prefer!

The lather provided a good shave. I was able to hit the sweet spot for a good combination of thickness and slickness each time, with a bit of tinkering; it seems to be a reasonably sizable but not large range of acceptable water content. Very good lather stability, decent moisturization.

8/10 Scent Pleasantness

7/10 Scent Strength

8/10 Lather Quality

So, overall I’ll say it’s a pretty good shaving cream, I’ll give it a 7/10. Apparently they re-formulated their product within the last year or so, so if you tried it in the past and didn’t like it, it might be worth a shot again.

Ingredients: Dunno! Couldn’t find a current listing. Best I could give you is this from their website: “This rich cream contains such beneficial ingredients as Coconut oil, Glycerin, Organic Cocoa Butter & Organic Aloe.”

Edit: This version had been discontinued. There is a new XPEC cream out there, but it is a reformulation, thus I wouldn’t base a purchase upon this review.

XPEC Original’s scent is based upon notes of rose, thyme, lemon, pepper, ginger, cedar wood and oak musk, with the rose being the scent that predominates. It most reminded me of Truefitt and Hill’s 1805, with perhaps a bit more “spice” added to the mix, as the pepper was noticeable, although I didn’t find it quite as strong as some other reports I’ve seen. All in all, I quite rather liked it.

The strength started off quite strong, however it didn’t stay there; it faded significantly throughout the shave, although it kind of dropped off to a level I’d describe as “so-so” and stayed there, not disappearing completely.

The cream lathered up quite nicely. Initially, with very little water, it looked like something that would work, however that turned out to be a mirage, as it was somewhat lacking in glide. However, a splash or two more fixed that right up, without appreciably thinning the lather. It ended up with a really good balance of glide and thickness, and what seemed like a rather wide “sweet spot” for water content. It was fairly voluminous as well, I’m thinking that you could get away with making a tub of it last a fair while. Very nice stuff, which left my face feeling nice and moisturized as well.

9/10 Scent Pleasantness

8/10 Scent Strength

9/10 Lather Quality

Overall, I give it a solid 8/10, not really rounding up or down. It’s a quality shaving cream. That having been said, I’m not sure I’d say it’s worth the price.

Ingredients: Not quite sure. Couldn’t find a listing on-line of the ingredients for the cream, only for the soap. All I could find mentioned are that it includes Glycerin, Coconut oil, and Aloe, which let’s face it, could describe a heck of a lot of shaving creams!

Edit: This product has since been discontinued. I’ve heard it’s similar to the Moroccan Myrrh they currently offer, although the description used by C&E for the scent has changed.

Crabtree & Evelyn’s Nomad shaving cream performed quite well. While my initial pass was a bit sub-par, as per usual it turned out to simply be a matter of insufficient water content. I will say, it did seem to be a bit thirstier than most creams I’ve seen, with the possible exception of those by Al’s Shaving Products.

Once that was cleared up, it became nice and slick, while retaining the bulk of its thickness. On the moisturization side of the house, I didn’t notice any particular difference in how my skin fared, good or bad. But all-in-all, I’d say that this was a rather nice shave.

Edit: After a further shave, I’m revisiting this one. While it did need a bit more water than what was just on the brush, I think I over-did it when adding some in. Drops were needed, not splashes. I honestly couldn’t really call it thirsty. And the moisturization honestly was pretty good. I’m bumping it up to a 9/10, both overall and on the lather quality.

The scent is exotic and spicy and a bit hard to describe. C&E call it a “refreshing blend of ginger, citron and bamboo”; like a lot of more complex scents, it’s a bit difficult to pick out the individual components, but I’d say the ginger is definitely the most noticeable. “Refreshing” is a good way to put it. I would have also accepted “invigourating”. It provided a good pick-me-up the mornings I used it.

The strength of the aroma was just shy of perfect. It was nice and strong when first applied to the face, and would have been a 10/10 if it had stayed that way. But it did experience some fading. Still, far better showing than most soaps and creams out there.

9/10 Scent Pleasantness

9/10 Scent Strength

9/10 Lather Quality

Overall, I’ll say this can be rounded up to a 9/10, and I’m putting it on the top ten list. I’d easily recommend this shaving cream.